Just a Shade
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: The Team must save Ariadne from the dreams before she becomes just a shade like Mal. Set right after the events of "A Half Remembered Dream". The 9th in my "Dream" series.
1. Chapter 1

Just a Shade

"_Is this real? Or has this all been happening in my head?" _

_~Harry Potter_

"_Of course it's happening in your head, Harry,_

_But why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"_

_~Albus Dumbledore_

_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_

"I don't think it looks like lavender." Ariadne said pressing her free hand to an uncomfortable knot in her back. She held paint swatches on the other hand like a fan. Her large belly not hidden at all by the white summer dress she wore. Arthur sighed heavily and looked at the drying paint.

"I'm sure it will look lavender when it dries." He assured her. "We can hire some men to come and paint it if you don't like it."

"No!" She told him, looking shocked by the idea. "I want to tell our daughter that her father painted her nursery. Not some random hired men." The Point Man sighed wearily. Ariadne was in her final month of pregnancy now and her unwieldy burden was making her irrational at times. Not that he had ever _dreamed _to tell her this.

"Fine." He capitulated. "Once it dries, and you don't like it, I can paint it again."

"This time lavender." She said crossly.

She sighed. _Nothing_ made her happy these days. She had trouble sleeping because of her heavy pregnancy and Alexander was entering the terrible two's with a vengeance. They had all been thrilled when the little boy started to talk. Just the stranded "Mamma, Dadda, No!, and Cerberus*." which was the huge dog Cobb and his children had gotten to roam wildly over the property.

Alexander was constantly curious about the large mutt. Fortunately the dog was calm and protective of the children. He often trotted beside the youngest child in his "pack" acting like a four legged nanny.

"Hello." Sybil said cheerily appearing in the door frame. She was carrying Alexander in one arm, his entire body covered in dirt. Ariadne sighed.

"What has he been into now?" She sighed crankily.

"Just some dirt." Sybil explained. "It's almost lunch time, I was going to wash him."

"Thanks Sybil." Arthur offered.  
>"It's that stupid dog." Ariadne complained. "Their just as bad as each other." She waved the swatches at her first born who grinned his father's mischievous grin.<p>

Sybil paid no attention to this. Her mind was full.

It was in this house.

This room.

A perfect lavender.

Not the lavender it was now, but softer.

_Perfect lavender._

A little girl in a blue taffeta ballerina costume.

Her long, dark hair wrapped up in a neat little bun.

Another image of the same little girl,

running down the stairs in shinny Mary Jane shoes.

The classic shoes were all her father would allowed her to wear when not dancing.

The little girl was dressed in a pink and white peppermint candy dress.

Sybil could almost taste the candy from seeing the girl dressed such.

Not a hair out of place and tied neatly in a pink bow.

A perfect little girl.

It was the kind of clothes and shoes only a father would pick out for his daughter.

Classic and elegant.

Arthur's taste.

She saw the little girl playing with her brother,

admiring and emulating an teenage blond girl that had to be Phillipa.

Chasing a large mutt around the garden.

Sybil saw Eames and even herself,

being disgusted and laughing at how much the little girl was like her father.

So neat and organized.

So careful and graceful.

They teased with laughter in their eyes.

They teased with sadness behind the laughter.

She saw Cobb, a deep scowl on his brow.

She saw Arthur.

How much he loved his daughter.

A deep well of sadness in his own eyes.

Nowhere did she see Ariadne.

The little girl's mother was not in the house.

She was gone, just a shade.

"Were not getting rid of the dog." Arthur said standing his ground. "He's good security." Ariadne sighed.

"I'm going to go lay down for a while." She said rubbing her back some more. "Thank you Sybil... Sybil?" Ariadne's voice cut into the Control's thoughts. Braking them free of whatever held them to that place where the little girl was.

"Oh... yeah... I'm fine." Sybil said "Just thinking." She gave Alexander a quick bath and brought him back downstairs with the rest of the family. Minus Arthur and Ariadne.

Phillipa, now almost 11 years old, had taken on much more responsibility over her younger brother as well as Alexander. The fact that Cobb gave her a generous allowance to do so was never mentioned.

In their quite master bedroom on the East Wing of the house, Arthur rubbed his wife's bare feet. The swelling made it hard for her to wear shoes most of the time. She was constantly uncomfortable.

"I don't know if I can take any more of this." She admitted in a defeated attitude. Her husband chuckled.

"Not much longer now." he assured her. "At least this time we can have a normal labor and delivery." She placed a cool wash cloth over her eyes and allowed herself to become lost in thought.

When she closed her eyes, she was in a privet place. She could retreat back to the white house in the forest. See Tomas and Ava. She felt so guilty for retreating to that place. She loved Arthur. Had always loved Arthur. Never loved Braker. Never wanted to be with Braker. Yet...

"We never talked about the dream." Her husband said interrupting her thoughts. She snapped back to reality as she removed the wash cloth from her face. She looked over her large belly at the Point Man.

"Why... why are you asking?" She stammered feeling surprised that Arthur had waited so long to ask any questions.  
>"It was about Braker." He replied simply. "Those kids in the house... was that your time in Limbo? Your family with him?" He asked. Not in an angry tone. Not blaming her at all.<p>

"The kids called me mommy so I assume they were." She said indifferently. She wanted him to drop it. Not ask her any more. She was embarrassed that Arthur had seen that world. Guilty that she had not hated it.

"Ariadne?" He asked softly. He didn't meet her eyes. "Did Braker... did he ever... _hurt_ you?" He awkwardly.  
>"He never raped me Arthur." She assured him. "He was normal. Like he had been before Limbo. I slept in the guest room." she said assured him. "I <em>felt<em> it you know."

"What?"

"I felt you kissing me while I was under." She confessed. He smiled. "I smelled your cologne, felt you. It was almost enough to bring me out." Arthur nodded and looked happy.  
>"Cobb said he could feel me slapping him. He said it almost brought him out as well." He laughed.<p>

"Glad you didn't slap me." She teased.

"Never." He said kissing her knee caps. She giggled playfully as her husband rose up to meet her lips. Mindful of her condition, he gently maneuvered around her large belly to rest beside her. His hand snaking devilishly up her dress.

"Oh Arthur," She groaned "I feel fat as a cow." She complained knowing where such explorations would lead.

"No. No, your beautiful." He told her honestly.

After Arthur's gentle lovemaking, she always had no trouble falling asleep. He joked that it was her sleeping pill. That whenever she was getting to stressed from the pregnancy, she just needed her sleeping pill. He left her to take a nap, and as always, she fell asleep quickly.

_Ariadne dreamed_.

It was _very_ early in morning. The sun had not even had a chance to awaken from it's own sleep. Ariadne was enjoying her morning walk outdoors. Feeling the joy of her light, thin, little body. Not heavy with a soon to be born baby. Her body was neat and trim. She went inside a small comfortable little house to fix breakfast when she heard a noise behind her. A slight stomping of little feet. She turned.  
>"Hey." She smiled warmly to Tomas. "What are you doing up so early?"<p>

"I had a bad dream." He complained.

"You did?" She asked in a worried tone that only a mother can give. Her son was dressed in his blue space man pajamas. She had to smile at him. She opened her arm to her son and he ran to her. She lightly touched his hair.  
>"Dreams can never hurt you." she told him gently. "There just in you imagination." The little boy clung to his mother's legs.<p>

"Do you want to help me fix breakfast?" She asked. Tomas nodded. A toothy grin coming over his cherub face. "We have to be quite, we don't want to wake your sister." Ariadne whispered to him.

Her conspirator in crime nodded and stood on his on a brightly painted step stool. He helped his mother break open eggs from their shell and beat them. He watched with fascination as his mother helped him poor the runny mess into a hot skillet that turned into hot delicious scrabbled eggs. As if by magic.

Ariadne watched the little boy happily. It was a perfect moment. She knew baby, Ava, would be awake soon. She would bring Ava down to eat with them. She would see her daughter's beautiful little face in a few minutes.

"Tomas." She said softly running a hand over the little boys soft hair. Like feathers. He turned to her and she saw her own eyes in his.

"What is it Mommy?" He asked. His sweet cherub like face so wonderful.

"I'm sorry I let you drown in the flood." She told him. He smiled.

"That's okay Mommy." He said.

**Cerberus, Greek. Three headed dog who guards the entrance into the underworld and prevents them form escaping. **


	2. Chapter 2

In my dreams alone

"_Mother's arms are made of tenderness,_

_and sweet sleep blesses the child who lies therin."_

_Victor Hugo_

Ariadne awoke to evening's waning light invading her bedroom. She was back in the old house in England. She heard noises of the family downstairs as she tried to sit herself up. Her back pain had not gone away at all. If anything, the shooting pain had only gotten worse. With difficulty, she climbed out of the bed. Something warm and sticky dislodged itself from between her legs. She looked down to see her dress completely soaked.

"Oh God." she breathed. A rush a fear taking hold of her.

"_Arthur_!" She screamed.

She heard a sudden and intense silence downstairs and then the noise of chairs being pushed aside on the hardwood floors.

Many feet running upstairs.

Her husband was the first to appear in the doorway, his long legs and quick movements making him the easiest bet to reach her first. His eyes rested on his wife, her hands trying to hold onto the heavy burden of their unborn child.

"I think my water just broke." She cried. The experience didn't hurt exactly. But the shock of it was enough to cause her to start to cry.

"It's okay." Arthur said rushing to her. Eames had arrived shortly after Arthur, and heard the news. The Forger raced downstairs to get the car ready as Arthur and Cobb helped Ariadne out of bed.

"Were going to the hospital now." Arthur beamed at her. An excited smile on his face. Even Cobb, for once, seemed excited and happy.

Sybil took Ariadne's leather carry all. The same one the Architect's grandfather had used. The Control was quick to reach Eames in the drive way as the Extractor and Point Man carefully shuttled Ariadne outside into the evening air.

"Don't worry about the kids!" Sybil called as Ariadne was gently, and slowly, lowered into the back seat of Arthur's luxury sedan.

The Point Man, not even caring about the leather seats at such a time. Or the fact that it was Eames who was doing the driving. The only thoughts in his mind was her wife and daughter.

Eames was a good driver. He made it to the small hospital in short time as Cobb called ahead to Ariadne's privet doctor. Arthur had insisted on hiring a specialist to be on call 24-7 for the birth of their second child.

Despite sonograms showing the mother and child were both healthy, Arthur treated them like fragile delicate things. Hiring consultants and specialists from England and Japan. He worried about his daughter. The time Morpheus had dragged Ariadne into that frightful dream. Had it hurt the child? Money was nothing to him. Never had been. Might as well use it to preserve the things that_ were_ something to him.

The hospital staff was ready for them as Arthur and Cobb helped Ariadne out of the car to a waiting nurse with a wheelchair. She was a pleasant older lady. A neat little pink sweater over her white uniform.

"Oh Dear." She said looking at the excited faces of the Point Man, the Extractor and the Forger. "Now which one of you is the Father to be?"

It was an easy and quick birth. A beautiful thing. Arthur stayed close to his wife as she delivered the baby naturally. Cobb and Eames paced outside in the waiting room.

Audrey was born healthy, screaming and purple. Her mother's cries of pain turned to cries of joy at seeing the squalling newborn. Arthur had to cover his face so his wife and the hospital staff wouldn't see his tears. Audrey was wrapped up in a clean pink blanket and presented to her mother.

"Oh my God, Arthur." Ariadne breathed. "She's so perfect."

"Yes she is." Arthur said proudly next to her. Audrey's little wrinkled face was just like Alexander's had been. Soft and almost grumpy looking.

Ariadne laughed at the thought of it.

Cobb and Eames were allowed to see their friends new edition soon. Like Arthur, Cobb looked longingly at the now slumbering new life. Blinking back tears at the miracle of it.

"She's beautiful." Cobb said raising his head up to look at his friends. Ariadne was sure that memories of his own daughter's birth were overcoming him right now.

"Sons are great and all, but a daughter..." Cobb added

"Nothing quite like it." Arthur finished for him.

The Extractor handed the baby over to the Forger.  
>"Yes, she's just a lovely Bird isn't she?" Eames smiled at the baby. "Thank God she looks like her Mother." He teased. Even Arthur laughed.<p>

"Well, were thinking her middle name might be Eames, after you." The Point Man said. The Forger looked up in surprise. Arthur shrugged.  
>"It seems only fair since Cobb is God Father." he explained<p>

"I'm honored." Eames said. A smile creeping onto his face.

"What's her first name?" Cobb asked as Eames handed the pink bundle over to her Father.

"Audrey." Ariadne said. Liking the sound of her daughter's name. "After Arthur's mother, Audrey Daniels."

"Daniels?" Cobb questioned, looking at Arthur.  
>"It was her stage name." The Point Man explained softly, giving his daughter back to his wife.<p>

"Wait, was she that lovely ballet dancer from New York?" Eames said searching his memory. "I remember her, the one who died..." The Forger stopped short as Arthur cast him a hurt look. Eames back peddled.

"It's a lovely name. I'm sure your Mum would be pleased."

Cobb and Eames drove back home to tell Sybil and the Children the happy news. Arthur slept sitting up in a chair next to his wife's bed. Their daughter, only occasionally sleeping, as all new babies are want to be. It was while the three of them were deep in slumber, that Ariadne fell back into her dream again.

Audrey was forgotten for the moment. A little white house surrounded by woods. Tomas was riding a small bike.

From her spot on the porch, Ariadne held her little girl, Ava, up. The baby was starting to stand on her own now. She would soon be walking.

"Look Mommy!" Tomas called out to her. Wanting her full attention.

"I'm looking!" She called back. "Your doing wonderful!"

It was a cool day out. Leaves were falling gently as Tomas tried to stay balanced on his bike and training wheels. Ava was laughing which made her mother laugh.

Then, everything changed. The house was flooding. Filling quickly with cold unforgiving water. Her young, helpless children were inside. Tomas was perched on the sofa. His pitiful cries sounding over the hard rain. Ava, her white crib floating just out of reach. Out of reach with the frightened baby inside it.

Arthur.

Arthur telling her to leave them. Leave them to die in the water. How could she have done such a thing? Leave her children to die in the flood like that?

Ariadne breathed back awake.

Audrey was fussing from hunger. Mother's instincts kicked in. She reached over for the tiny pink bundle. She had already successfully breast fed her daughter once and was excited to attempt it again. The sensation of her life, pouring out of her and into her child, was indescribable. Joy, folded over many times.

She smiled at the little face. Looking much less grumpy now. A little rosy hand freed itself from the blankets. Spreading her five long little fingers. Ariadne was fascinated by her daughter's little hand and fingernails.

Arthur stirred from his chair.

"How is she doing?" He whispered in Ariadne's ear.

The Architect froze. A sensation like fear spreading over her. She felt Arthur kiss her shoulder and neck. His lips like ice on her skin.

"Stay away from us." She hissed at him.

Arthur was taken aback. He looked at his wife as though she had suddenly sprouted three heads.

"What?" He asked in disbelief.

"You heard me." She said harshly. Her eyes wide and angry. Her expression crazed. "You made me leave my children before. You made me leave them, to drown in that flood. I wont let you hurt her." She told him. Her face cold.

Arthur could only look in startled amazement as Ariadne calmly turned back to their daughter.


	3. Chapter 3

Broken

"_What happens to the Wide-Eyed observer, _

_when the window between reality and unreality breaks,_

_and the glass begins to fly?" _

_Unknown_

"Arthur," Cobb said sleepily. "What are you talking about?" It was late and a frantic call from the Point Man had jerked the Extractor from a dreamless sleep.

"I woke up, Ariadne was feeding the baby, she told me to stay away from her. She was talking about the dream she had. The one with Braker. Like it was a _real_ thing. She thinks the children in it were real, and I let them drown. You should have seen the look in her eyes." Arthur hissed.

His face was a mess of worry. He stood in an empty hall in the hospital. Just outside his wife's room. His cell phone glued to his ear. After the frightening conversation with Ariadne, he refused to leave his daughter alone with her Mother. He alerted a nurse who had taken the baby to the nursery. Ariadne didn't seem to object and quickly feel back asleep.

Now, he wasn't sure what to do. What to even think. She had looked so crazed. Like she could have killed him. He had never seen that look on her face.

"Did you two have a fight?" Cobb asked.

"No, No Cobb your not listening." Arthur hissed feeling increasingly frustrated. "Something is _wrong_ with her." Arthur looked down the hall at the nursery. "She was talking about the projections of those children like they were _real_. Like they had really drowned in the dream Morpheus pulled her into." His heart was beating fast over worry. Over fear for his wife.

Had she lost her grip on reality?

"What are you doing?" Came a voice. Arthur jumped and saw Ariadne in the doorway of her hospital room. She was standing half in and out of the shadows. She stepped into the light. Her face, unreadable. For and unexplainable moment, Arthur was afraid of her.

"I was... I was talking to Cobb." Arthur breathed as he hung up his cell phone.

"Where's Audrey?" She asked in a dead voice. Arthur felt his breathing come faster.

"She's... she's fine, the nurses are taking care of her." He said. She looked down the hall at the nursery. She held out her pale hand to him.  
>"Come to bed." She said softly. She was dressed in a white hospital gown. Her face was drawn and tired looking from the labor and delivery. Her dark hair, limp around her face. Her skin pale in the dark hall and room. She looked almost ghostly.<p>

Arthur swallowed a hard lump in his throat as he took her hand. A hand that felt suddenly cold.

He followed her into the shadows of her hospital room.

He shut the door behind them.

She climbed back into her hospital bed and gave him room to climb in next to her.

He eased his lean frame around her small body. Spooning her. Cautiously, he wrapped his arms around her.

"I love you Ariadne." He whispered. "You know that right?"

"Of course I do." She said. Her voice sounding far away. "I love you to, Arthur."

Dawn came, as it always dose. No matter how bad the day before, how awful the night had been, the sun _always_ rises in the morning.

The dawn seemed to have brought Ariadne back to normal. She seemed chipper as she packed her things to check out of the hospital. The staff had brought the baby back to her, and Audrey had been carefully placed in her car set by her Father. Arthur had been surprised when Ariadne had asked him to put the baby safely in her seat. It was as if the events of the night before had not happened.

Ariadne was the same as she ever was. Arthur sat in his chair watching her. Not attempting to hide the worried look on his face.

Ariadne was a dutiful mother. Always had been. She kept one eye on her sleeping baby as she packed. She glanced at her husband.

"What's wrong?" She asked him. He sat up straighter.

"Oh, nothing." He lied trying to look normal.

"What did you do?" She sighed looking annoyed with him.

"Nothing!" He said "Everything's fine."

"Why do you look so worried?" She asked.

"I'm just worried... about Eames driving my car." he said quickly. She smiled at him and gave a soft laugh.

"I'm sure it's fine." She told him.

"Ariadne?" He asked. She turned to him.

"Do you still dream?" He asked. "I mean without the PASIV?"

"No." She told him. Her face looking honest. "I think the last time I dreamed was before I was kidnapped. It was about Zombies. I had turned into a Zombie and was eating some poor guy's brains.*" She had finished packing and secured Audrey's blanket.

"I think the PASIV 4 took away my natural dreaming." She told him. "Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering." Arthur said with a worried smile.

Cobb was worried to. He had driven from the house alone to pick them up. He and Arthur talked for a long time in the hallway. The Point Man obviously scared.

"Cobb, it's like what happened with Mal." Arthur was saying. A real sense of panic spreading over him. Cobb tried to calm his friend down.

"You said it yourself, you were half sleep. She hasn't slept very well in days. Maybe she was just cranky." Cobb offered. Not wanting to believe the worst.

"No." Arthur shook his head. "I know what I heard." Cobb sighed.

"Let's call Yori then."

"I already did." Arthur told the Extractor.

Back at large country house again, Ariadne was perfectly fine. Sybil and Eames had been told about what had happened. The Architect thought that the extended family was just being attentive to her and the baby, really, they were afraid to leave her alone with the newborn.

The memory of what happened to Mal was written on Cobb's face. On the faces his motherless children.

"I think I can help." Sybil was telling them. Yori and Saito were in the air but still a few hours away from England. The Team was gathered in Arthur's study. Ariadne was with Audrey in the front parlor.

The Team was out of hearing range of the Architect, but still keeping an eye on her and the baby, dressed in pink. Phillipa was watching the two boys outside. Cerberus was with them for good measure.

"Circe taught me all her little tricks before she died." The Control was saying as the Point Man peered nervously out the door at Ariadne. She was walking the floor with their daughter. She seemed happy.

"You can _help_ by telling us exactly what Morpheus did to her. That whole drowning thing was his fault." Arthur barked at her. "Bring him here."

"I can bring him here, but he can't do anything." Sybil told the Team. They looked at her waiting for her to explain. "It's a one time only deal. He can pull people into a dream only once, and _only_ if they have been in Limbo. That's why he never took you or Yori." She explained nodding to the Point Man.

"Our girl seems fine now." Eames said to Arthur. "She's affectionate to you. Normal. Not talking about the dream." The Forger sighed. "Are you sure you heard right?" he asked him.

"I know what I heard Mr. Eames." Arthur said coldly.

"With everything that she has gone though over the past few years, its possible that she has started to confuse the dream with reality." Sybil said

"We can't afford to just ignore this." Cobb said gravely. "I ignored these same signs with Mal, look what happened."

"She's just a shade." Sybil said in a hushed whisper.

A large helicopter, one capable of long distance travel, landed on the large country estate. Cerberus was barking madly as Yori and Saito dismounted. Their four year old son Shin in tow with his nanny following closely behind. Saito, ever the attentive friend since Cobb brought him back from Limbo, wasted no time in coming to the Team's aide.

"She is so lovey." Yori said holding Audrey. The Team was crowded in the large parlor. A large parlor, that suddenly seemed small when crowded with warm bodies. The baby's proud parents beamed as their friends gushed over their daughter.

Shin and Alexander chased one another around the room. Arthur's son indifferent to becoming a big brother. The house, if it was a living thing, was warm and happy with so much life bursting at it's seems. The friends talked and visited, ate a nice dinner, and put the children to bed. Shin sharing Alexander's room contentedly. Fast becoming the friends their parents hoped they would be.

Yori and Sybil were in Audrey's, now perfectly lavender, room.

"She's already so long." Yori exclaimed as she changed the baby. Ariadne laughed.

"I hope she's tall like Arthur." The Architect said with a smile. "It's rotten being so short."

"How is Mr. Nolan?" Yori asked Sybil. The Control shrugged.

"Fine, I went to see him last month in New York." Sybil told them.

"Anything happen worth mentioning?" Ariadne teased. Sybil rolled her large brown eyes.

"No." Sybil said, her voice irritated. "Percy thinks we should wait until we get married before having sex."

"What?" Ariadne laughed. Sybil nodded.  
>"I told him he was reading to much 'Twilight' and <em>he<em> got mad at _me_." The Control complained. Yori and Ariadne burst out in laughter.

"Sybil, maybe he just really loves you." Yori offered.

"I_ know_ he dose. All the more reason for him to put out." Sybil said in an irritated tone. "Ariadne and I went to the lingerie shop in Paris "la Dame du Gout*", got this really sexy nightie for me and I never even got the chance to have him rip it off." Sybil complained. Ariadne nodded.

"It was really nice." She told the Doctor. "It's where Arthur buys _all_ the lingerie for me."

"Perhaps Saito and I should make a detour to Paris then." Yori offered. "I think after seeing your little princess here, I want one of my own." Yori lovingly held Audrey in her capable arms.

"What does Saito think about having another baby?" Ariadne asked. Her face beaming at the joy of shared motherhood. Yori considered her husband for a moment.

"Men, rarely have a say in such matters." The Doctor told her. Ariadne suppressed a giggle. At that moment, they both knew such a thing was universal and deeply true.

Sybil had been ignoring the women and their _constant_ talk of babies.

"You know Eames said that celibacy is a very unnatural state for any living creature." She said. Her thoughts still on her time with Nolan. "It's not healthy to abstain from sex."

"Eames _would_ say that." Ariadne countered.

Upstairs, the women giggled and laughed over their secretive girl talk. Downstairs, the men talked of more serious things.

"We can drug her easily enough." Eames was saying. "Yori brought a portable MRI. We can use it to determine if she really _is_ dreaming without the PASIV. Decide where to go from there."

"She's nursing the baby." Arthur told them. "She can't take anything or else Audrey gets it in a few hours."

"You can bottle feed the baby for a few days. Just tell Ariadne that you want to be apart of the bonding. She'll think it's sweet." Cobb told him. The Point Man gave his friend a doubtful look. The Extractor shrugged. "Mal always thought it was sweet."

Plans were made. That very night, they would invade the Architect's dreams.

***La Dame du Gout, French, "The Lady's Taste"._ Not an actual shop in Paris._**

*** Zombie Dream, was the last dream I remember having.**

** ~Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews. I am so glad you love my stories and characters as much as I did creating them. I deeply appreciate all you have experienced on the journey with them. Your kind reviews mean the world to me. I hope to keep filling this world I've made for them, even if only a handful of people read it.~**


	4. Chapter 4

I'll see you in my Dreams

"_Soon my eyes will close,_

_Soon I'll find repose._

_And in Dreams,_

_You're always near to me._

_I'll see you in my Dreams,_

_Hold you in my Dreams._

_Someone took you out of my arms,_

_Still I feel the thrill of your charms." _

_Ingrid Michaelson, I'll See You In My Dreams_

"I still say I can help." Sybil said. Ariadne was sound asleep from the drink of warm milk laced with a heavy sedative Arthur had given her. She laid asleep on the couple's bed. The entire team was around her as Yori placed little electrode stickers on the Architects forehead.

It was unspoken among all of them that Ariadne could be told nothing of the Teams suspicions. If the Architect had any idea that the Team knew, her subconscious would try to defend itself. They knew from first hand experience how well she could manipulate her own dreams.

"Circe had a lot of contacts with every accomplished Dreamers." Sybil told them again.

"Were in this mess because of Circe's little friends." Arthur said angrily. Remembering Hecate and Morpheus. "Were not allowing them back in again."

"They can help." the Control told him. The Point Man ignored her as The Doctor looked at the computer screen.

"She's in there." Yori said gravely. "She's dreaming. Her brain scan is _incredibly_ active. Almost like she was awake and experiencing real life."

"She's asleep." Cobb said taking the Architect's pulse. "How can that be?"

"I don't know." Yori confessed.

Eames produced the PASIV device.

"I'll go in." Arthur volunteered.

"Arthur, she thinks you let her children drown in there." Cobb said gently.  
>"She's my wife." Arthur told the Extractor. It was the only argument he needed. Cobb nodded and helped to hook his friend up to the PASIV. Arthur fell into Ariadne's dream.<p>

It was a green forest. A lake was in the distance. A white house. But not the same white house he had seen the last time. With the flood. Arthur wondered if he would be lucky enough to run into Braker again. He would love the chance to kill the Australian Forger again.

The Point Man approached the house. It stood solitary in the little clearing. It's windows open, white curtains catching the breeze. He heard the laughter of children. He cautiously climbed the wooden porch and opened the front door.

His beautiful wife was there. Her long dark hair swept into a loose braid. He had to stop a moment to observe how lovely she was. Like he was watching a rare mythic creature. One who would vanish if she knew he was watching. She hadn't seen him yet. Her back was turned. He watched her cooking in the clean little kitchen.

"Mommy?" Came a little voice. Arthur and Ariadne both turned to look at the little boy. The Point Man almost grimaced as he saw the child looked much like Braker must have at that age.

'Did she go to this place to be with Braker?' he mused sadly. Ariadne finally saw her husband.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. Her eyes wide.

"Ariadne... it's alright." He husband told her.

He started to approach her when she garbed the knife. His guard was down. He never expected her to stab him. Let alone so many times. Her eyes looked crazed as she plunged the large kitchen knife over and over into his chest. He felt himself being taken out of the dream the worst way possible. By dieing.

Arthur jumped back into the waking world only moments after going into the dream.

"What happened?" Sybil asked seeing the sheen of sweat across the Point Man's brow.

"She stabbed me." Arthur said gruffly. He coughed slightly at the sharp memory of his lungs filling with his own blood.

"Eames, you go in. Forge yourself as Braker." Cobb told him.  
>"<em>What<em>?" Arthur asked feeling a rage come over him. _Braker_. How he hated him.

"You were stabbed because you weren't supposed to be in the dream. Braker is supposed to be there. If Eames goes in there forged as him, we might get more answers." The Extractor explained.

"Guys, I keep telling you to let me help. Why won't you listen to me?" Sybil chimed in. The Team ignored her. Again.

In the Dream, Eames disguised himself at the Australian Forger. He had the advantage of knowing Braker a few years and it was an easy thing to do. He was in the neat little bathroom of the white house using the mirror to wash away his own face, and remold himself to Braker's. He emerged from the bathroom to a cozy living room. Mismatched furniture that was still charming and attractive. A little boy played with his toys as a baby, dressed in pink sat in a high chair.

"Daddy!" The little boy called. Eames/Braker saw Ariadne come out of the kitchen. She did not look happy to see him.

"What are _you_ want?" She asked. Her tone annoyed but not dangerous.

"Hello Gorgeous, just wanted to see all of you." Eames said thinking fast.

"Well, I don't want to see you." Ariadne said. "Arthur was just here."

"He was?" Eames/Braker asked. He looked at pictures on the wall. All of them were of the kids and her. No Braker, nothing that he even existed.

For a few hours he stayed in the dream. Ariadne resenting his presence but not hurting him. She was an attentive mother. She smiled when ever her eyes fell on her 'other' children. She cooked for them and watched them play.

"Your not staying the night." She informed him curtly. Eames/Braker smiled and nodded. The Forger heard the wake-up music start to play.

Time to go home anyway.

Eames awoke to the rest of the Team's worried looks. Ariadne was still sleep on the bed next to him.

Her husband looking over her.

"How did it go?" Arthur asked.

"Well she didn't kill me." Eames said. "The _real_ good news is, she's not dreaming of Braker at all. She didn't like me one bit as Braker. I don't think he's even apart of things in there."

"That _is_ good news." Arthur agreed. The Point Man looking at his wife worriedly as she slept on.

"Were never going to get anywhere like this. We need to call in an expert." Sybil said.

Finally, they looked at her. She had their attention.

"We are the expert's Sybil." Yori told her.

"No, we just share dreams once and a while. Were not experts. We need to call in one of Circe's people. They've done this before." Sybil told them.

"How do you know they can help?" Cobb said. "I've never heard of anything like this happening."

"No offense Cobb, but your not a real Dreamer." Sybil told the Extractor.

"How do you know one of Circe's people will even be willing to help us?" Arthur asked.

"Because," She said slowly "They answer to _me_ now."


	5. Chapter 5

Isis

_ "I have come to be a protector unto thee."_

_ The funeral chamber speech of Isis_

The sun was out, and shining. Warm, though the chill of fall was creeping ever closer to the large, country house.

The Team had withdrawn from Ariadne's mind for the night. Thanks to the sedative Yori prepared, the Architect would have no memory of the Team invading her dreams. Or so they hoped. Arthur stayed close to his wife as she slept peacefully.

When she finally woke, hours later, she seemed confused to see him. She looked at him very carefully. As if she was suspicious of him. But after a few minuets, the fog seemed to lift from her eyes.

Cobb had been right about one thing. Ariadne didn't question it when Arthur said he wanted to feed Audrey. She watched them both contentedly as her husband gave the new baby a bottle.

"That's so sweet that you want to bond with her." She told him kissing his temple. Arthur pretend to laugh. To hide the memory of her stabbing him and the very real fear her felt for her.

Alexander was curled on his mother's lap. Jealous of this new creature taking away all his parents attention. Not understanding why such a thing was.

Around noon, Sybil's hired gun arrived. Ariadne was not expecting any more visitors and was surprised to see the warm older lady at her door.

"Oh my!" The Pleasant Lady exclaimed with laughter at seeing the Architect. A bright smile was lit on her face. "What a pretty face you have, my dear!" the lady had bright brown eyes and graying hair in a mess of lose curls. Her figure was pleasingly endowed. Her skin was fair, but reddened by the sun. Her accent, obviously British. Her clothes were a colorful mismatched array that was showed the lady dressed for comfort and function only. A sharp contrast to the elegant and classic taste the family always wore.

The Pleasant Lady wasted no time in entering the front door. Not waiting for Ariadne to invite her.  
>"Oh, and what a <em>splendid<em> home." She said looking around the original wood paneling that adorned the great room.

Ariadne caught herself smiling. The Pleasant Lady seemed to have brought the sun inside with her. It's warm beams falling on the Architect's shoulders as she stood in silence at the door.

"Who's at the door?" Arthur said coming into the great room. He stopped abruptly when he saw the intruder. There was nothing about her that suggested they were in any danger from this woman. She smiled warmly at the Point Man.

"Now you must be the husband, so handsome. And you my dear," She turned to Ariadne. "Your his lovely wife, with the little ones?"

Ariadne couldn't help but smile again as she went to stand by her husband. Something about this woman gave her no fear at all.

After all the Teams bad luck with strangers, nothing alarmed them now.

"Um, yes a little boy. He's two. And we just had a little girl." Ariadne admitted. Arthur wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulder as the Pleasant Lady beamed at them.

"Oh, how _wonderful_. You know, little boys are for their mothers. Little girls, are for their fathers. Boys always love their mothers, and girls always love their fathers. People think it's the opposite but it's not. Not at all." The stranger sighed and looked at the Point Man. "You mark my words young man, there will come a time when you think the only person who loves you is that little girl."

It was Arthur's turn to laugh softly. He turned to his wife who couldn't stop smiling.

"Um... I'm so sorry but... who are you again?" Ariadne asked. Feeling embarrassed. The Pleasant Lady threw up her hands and rolled her eyes.  
>"My Dear! Oh, I would lose my head! I do apologize, I get so flustered sometimes. My name is Isis*." The Pleasant Lady told them. Her warm smile never leaving them. Like a yawn, her smile was contagious.<p>

"Hello Isis." Sybil said coming into the great room. "I'm Sybil. Thank you so much for coming." the Control took the Pleasant Lady's hand and they greeted one another.  
>"Um.. Sybil?" Ariadne said. "Who's your little friend?"<p>

Ariadne was told that Isis was a friend of Sybil's mother. Like Hagion had been. The rest of the Team knew better however. Isis was one of the Dreamers Sybil had told them about.

A powerful Dreamer who would help them bring the Architect back. For now, they had to lie to Ariadne about who Isis really was. They could not let her know they were planing to go into her dreams again.

Isis was easily welcomed into the tightly knit family. She was like a beloved mother come for a much anticipated visit. The Children, were especially drawn to her warm nature.

"Nothing at all like Circe's other students." Eames whispered to Cobb. The Pleasant Lady was seated in the Large Parlor with the Team as well as the children around her. Warm sunlight shown through the windows on the visitor as she chatted endlessly.  
>"My Dear Pippa*, lets brush out these snarls from your hair." Isis said to the girl as Phillipa allowed the Pleasant Lady to comb and braid her long blond hair.<p>

"That's what the Bennett sisters* next door call me." Phillipa beamed. The Extractor smiled.

"She's always over there when she's not here." Cobb told Isis.

It was an easy and comfortable few hours with Isis around. Jokes were shared over lunch and when Ariadne went to put Alexander down for his nap, the talk turned to the real reason for Isis coming to see the Team.

"I was trained as an Extractor." Isis said. Her manners still kind and easy. "When dream sharing was just getting started, I was recruited because I was working as a therapist in London. I've always had a way of getting people to tell me things. It works well in the Dream."

"I thought you were one of Circe's students." Eames said. Isis nodded.  
>"She was our Team leader. Circe... was a great mind. Capable of doing things in dreams no one ever dared to think of. She was not only an Extractor, but an Architect, Forger and Chemist." Isis explained.<p>

"She took all of us to heights never thought possible before." Isis sighed at the memory. "Reality... never seemed enough for her after the dream world."

"We haven't had a lot of good experiences with Circe, or her people. How do we know we can trust you?" Saito said. The Businessman was still distrustful of the Witch and her students. With good reason.  
>"Because, Ariadne is losing herself to the dream. And from what Sybil has told me, we don't have much time. Soon she will <em>chose<em> to remain in the dream." Isis said, her face and manners growing desperate and worried.

"She'll kill herself?" Arthur asked softly. Isis shook her head.

"She won't try to kill herself, she will just _stay_ in the dream."

"How do you know that?" Saito asked. The Pleasant Lady looked at the Businessman.

"Because Sir, this is exactly how we lost Circe." She said sadly.

***Isis, Egyptian, Goddess of Motherhood, Children, Magic and Fertility. Isis was the friend to slaves and the downtrodden. Protector of the dead. **

***Pippa, Common nickname for Phillipa**

***Bennett Sisters, From Pride & Prejudice. **

** ~I like to think of as Isis as Brenda Blethyn, She played Mrs. Bennett (the Mother) in the Joe Wright's 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice. I thought she was just so warm and wonderful. I also think the large country house the Team now lives in would be the same house (Longbourn) from the movie.**

** Pride & Prejudice is my favorite movie. Inception is a close second. The first 5 min in, I was thinking "I want to go and live with the Bennett family!" **

** If you like Arthur and Ariadne, you will LOVE Lizzy and Darcy. Trust me, Mr. Darcy has that sexy "Arthur" vibe working for him. I would not me at all surprised if Nolan based Arthur's personality on Mr. Darcy.~**


	6. Chapter 6

Evening Rituals

"_I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death."_

_Nasir "Nash" Jones_

"Circe _chose_ to go into a coma?" Eames asked doubtfully. The Team had given a very brief moment of stunned silence when Isis revealed what caused the Witch to fall into her coma. A coma, that meant the only way she could communicate with others was in the dream world.

Isis nodded.

"It started with hallucinations. We pulled her from missions but we soon realized she had started to dream on her own, without the PASIV. Like your Architect. It became more and more difficult to wake her. We tried _everything_ to bring her out." Isis shrugged.

"Maybe we could repress the dream memories, the ones of these children." Arthur offered. Isis shook her head.

"We tried that as well, they came to the surface very quickly." The Pleasant Lady told him gently. "After that, her subconscious realized what we were up to and defended it's self." Isis gave a sad look. "Circe's subconscious was... formidable."

"Perhaps we could have Sybil take control of the dream, make the children grow up." Yori offered. "That way she could let them go."

"Just because a child is grown a parent stops caring about them?" Isis teased with a smile. "No, that won't work either." Isis sighed. "We have to _force her_ to chose which reality she wants. Her real family," She nodded at Arthur. "Or the dream."

"What... what if she chooses the dream?" Arthur asked tentatively. Isis shook her head.  
>"Then she'll be lost."<p>

It was evening. The Team had shared dinner with their visitor and prepared one of the upstairs guest rooms for her. Isis had brought with her a certain amount of humor to the home. She was constantly making fun of herself. Causing everyone to laugh so much they barely were able to stop and eat.

A massive dining table to seat 14 was permanently placed in the great room to accommodate the large household as well as any guest come dinner time. Not long ago, Arthur had said they would never be able to fill a that table for 10 back in Japan. Most meals however, were taken in a small breakfast room off of the kitchen.

Isis listened attentively to Phillipa and James talk about how they would be starting a new school soon. She assured them both that they would do well and make friends.

"Who wouldn't want to be friends with you?" Isis exclaimed when Phillipa expressed doubt. "My Dear Pippa! You have lived all over the world. The other children will think the both of you are terribly interesting." Cobb's daughter seemed much more comforted by the Pleasant Lady's refusal to believe that she could never be anything but popular, smart, and wonderful. Everything Isis said seemed like a fact, and who could disagree with facts?

She told Ariadne how lucky Alexander and Audrey were to have such a good mother. Praised Yori and Sybil for the cooking. Listened to Cobb talk about his late wife and told him confidently how research shows a father is very well suited to raise children.

"In fact, daughters who have a good relationship with their fathers do better in school and go further education wise. They also make better choices when it comes to relationships with other men." Isis told the Extractor.

Cobb's only reaction to this was to hide a smile behind his glass as Ariadne caught his eye and gave him a wink.

"I like her." Ariadne admitted as she and Arthur were in the bathroom. Alexander was seated happily in the old fashioned claw footed bath tub. Splashing his his warm bath water and bathed in his parents attention.

The smell of the baby shampoo and gentle soap was like aroma therapy for the child's father. For a few moments, Arthur forgot about his worry over his wife. Content to just enjoy the simple pleasure of this domestic moment. His favorite time of day was putting the little ones to bed. They were tired from the day of hard play. It was true that you loved your children more when they were sleeping.

"It's good Sybil has other people she can rely on." Ariadne added. Arthur nodded.

"You've been awfully quite." The Architect told her husband. Arthur sighed and shook his head.

He had grown weary of always having to lie to his wife. Always thinking of excuses why she couldn't breast feed Audrey. Why he was afraid to leave her alone with the baby or any of the children. He fished his son out of his bath water and toweled him off.  
>"I'll put him to bed." The Point Man said. "I'll bring back a glass of milk, to help you sleep." He added leaving her alone in the bathroom, wondering what she did wrong.<p>

Out in the back garden, Eames sat on one of the sturdy swings Cobb and Arthur had built for the children. The Forger had been lost in thought over what Isis had said about Circe.

"Penny for your thoughts, Mr Eames." Came Isis's gentle voice. Eames looked over to see the Pleasant Lady approaching from the brightly lit house.

"Just thinking about the mission, Lovely." He told her. Isis sat in the swing next to him.

"Cobb is designing the dreams for us right now." Isis told the Forger. "It's important that she doesn't know the maze. He's a talented Architect."

"Not as good as our girl is." Eames said.

"I'm sure." Isis said. "Sybil told me about Circe's death. She said you were there with her." Eames looked uncomfortable.

"She went quickly." He told her.  
>"I'm glad you were there for her. She always hated to be alone. She was such a people person." Isis said. Eames nodded.<br>"I can't believe she wanted that to happen to her. In the real world, her body just wasted away." Eames mused.

"I don't think she wanted that to happen Mr. Eames. We have been there. Sometimes the dream is so much better then reality." Isis told him. "In the dream, things are under our control, were like Gods aren't we?" Isis sighed. "It was to much for her. To seductive."

"Cobb and Arthur said she tried to seduce them." Eames told the Pleasant Lady. Isis laughed.

"Well, that was Circe." She said. "She gave flirting a bad name."

"She never tried to seduce me." Eames admitted.

"Maybe she didn't have to." Isis offered. Eames smiled.

"No, no she didn't." The Forger. "I wish..." He started to say something and stopped. Isis was listening.

The memory of what Circe had said to him while she was dieing, was still sharp in his mind.

"_I'm glad you came back Mr. Eames." _

_She said in almost a gasp. Her breathing labored. _

"_you have been so...so very... interesting. _

_I'm... I'm sorry we could not... have more time together."_

Something else also came to his memory. Something that contradicted what Isis had told them about Circe.

"_I had to keep Sybil safe. _

_Her abilities are greater then mine. _

_I can't let others take her into the dream world. _

_Like I was taken, and left"_

Eames wondered if it was Circe telling the truth about being taken into the dream. Or if Isis was telling the truth about Circe wanting to stay. He knew people on their death beds, as Circe was, don't often lie. Eames shook his head. He didn't want to tell Isis to much.

A good gambler never shows his hand.

Back in their bedroom, Ariadne sat in bed. Arthur sat a mug of warm milk down next to her. He didn't meet her in the eye.

"Drink your milk, before it gets cold." He told her.

"Arthur," She said softly. He finally looked at her. Her eyes were large and worried looking.  
>"Have I done something wrong?" She asked.<p>

He sighed. He wanted to just tell her. But knew that he couldn't. The risk of losing her was to great.

"Whatever I did, I'm sorry." She said looking on the verge of tears.

"Shh." He said kissing her gently. "I'm not mad." He told her. His wife wiped away a few tears. He held her in his arms. Thinking dark thoughts.

'This may be the last time I get to talk to her.' He thought.

"Ariadne?" He ventured.

"What?" Her voice choked her soft crying.

"You know... you know I would never allow anything to happen to you." He wasn't sure what he even wanted to say. "If you were ever... lost... I would find you. I would bring you back. No matter what." He finished finally. Not even able to tell her a tenth of the things he wanted to let her know.

"Arthur, I'm not going anywhere." She told him. A soft smile breaking out on her face. He nodded and let out a long breath.

'This can't be the last time I ever talk to her.' He thought.

"I love you." He said simply. "Drink your milk."


	7. Chapter 7

Men of Action

"_All men of action are dreamers"_

_ James Huneker_

"We must be ready for any defenses she might mount against us." Isis was saying. The Team was gathered around Ariadne. The Architect was sleeping soundly on the large bed she normally shared with Arthur. The Point Man smoothed back his wife's hair and adjusted her covers.

He gently exposed her wrist, so Cobb was able to attach the PASIV.

"The compound we will be using is a very powerful sedative because of the different levels. The risk of Limbo is very real. If any of you are in danger, we _must_ withdraw." Isis looked around at each of them. Her face serious.  
>"We can try again, but the sooner we do this the better. If there are any of you who don't want to go down into the dream, say so now." The Pleasant Lady added.<p>

The Team only looked at her. Isis nodded.

"Remember that her subconscious can take the form of anything. Not just projections of people. Sybil will take control of the dream form Ariadne, but her projections will still be a very real threat." The Team all nodded at her. "Let's go then." She attached her own wrist to the device as Yori and Saito stood watch.

"Sweet Dreams." Saito told them.

Down into Ariadne's dream they fell. Awakening in the forest with a white house.

"Take control of the dream, Sybil." Cobb told the Control.

"I'm trying." Sybil said. Her brow wrinkling. "She's _very_ strong." The ground shook. "Out of the trees, buildings arose. The small house was reduced to rubble and sky scrapers sprang free from the earth.

"I have it now." Sybil whispered.

"Be ready to give control of the dream over to Cobb." Arthur told her.  
>"I know what to do, Arthur." She said. Her face sweating. They walked to the building where the house had been.<p>

It was a hospital. The same one Arthur was taken after he had been shot. Isis had forged herself as a nurse, hiding the Point Man in the paradox of the hospital. Away from his wife. For the moment.

Sybil, Cobb and Eames found Ariadne in the waiting room. She looked very confused.

"Cobb?" She said looking us and seeing them. "What happened?"

"Arthur was shot." The Extractor lied easily. "Don't you remember?" Slow horrific realization washed over the Architect's face.

"Where's Alexander?" She cried.

"It's alright, Percy is looking after him." Sybil said comforting her. "Do you want to see him?" As if the Architect had called for her son, the child appeared. The same age he had been when his father lay so near death. Nothing more then a projection, but the Architect was soon holding him. Crying. Cobb and Eames nodded. The first phase of the plane was working.

"Cobb." Eames said pulling the Extractor aside. "I don't think we can trust Isis."

"You picked a hell of a time to bring this up, Eames." Cobb said looking at Ariadne and Sybil. "Why not?"

"Things she told us about Circe." Eames said shaking his head. "Circe said she was _taken_ into the dream, then left. Not at all what that woman told us."

"Eames, Circe was a lair and a master manipulator." Cobb told the Forger. "If there is anyone we couldn't trust it was her."

"You forget how she saved all of us from Hecate." Eames told the Extractor.

"We don't have time for this right now, we have to continue on with the mission." Cobb advised. They looked over at Sybil who had left Ariadne's side.

"We have to take her deeper." Sybil said coming to meet them.

"So soon?" Cobb asked. As an answer, Sybil pointed to the shadows of the waiting room. A little boy in blue space man pajamas, was quietly playing with his toys.

"Find Arthur and Isis, bring them here." Cobb told the Forger. Eames nodded and vanished in the stair well paradox.

"What's that?" Sybil asked peering at something in the hallways. Cobb looked in the same direction. Something was coming towards them. Water.

"Arthur said her 'other' children downed in a flood." Cobb breathed out a worried sigh. The water must be her projections."  
>"Cobb..." Sybil whispered. He voice uneasy.<p>

Arthur and Isis arrived as Cobb and Sybil were putting Ariadne under again. Her projection of Alexander faded as did the little boy in the blue space man pajamas.

"What's with all the water?" Eames asked.  
>"We think it's her projections." Sybil cried. "I can raise the building higher but after I go under, you'll be on your own, Cobb." As she did this, a feeling like being in an elevator came over them. The water spilled out as Sybil made the building raise higher.<p>

"First part of the plan is going alright, but we don't have much time." Cobb told them. Arthur picked his wife's sleeping body up and laid her carefully on a nearby stretcher.

"Keep us out of the water, Mr. Cobb." Isis reminded him gently. The Extractor nodded as the Team arranged themselves on vacant stretchers, Sybil dreamed, and prepared to venture into the second layer.

"How do we do this?" Cobb started to ask but and earthquake like force shook the dream.

Sybil had given control of the dream to the Extractor. Cobb stood there stunned for a moment. The realization that he was now the dreamer was exhilarating.  
>"The more you raise the building, the faster the water will come." Sybil warned him. Cobb nodded as the Team finished hooking themselves up to the PASIV.<p>

"I'll play the music when it's time." Cobb reminded them before sending them below.

Sybil took control of Ariadne's dream yet again as the Team awoke to the same forest and white house. The ground gave a horrible lurch as Sybil fought the Architect over who would do the dreaming.  
>"This is getting harder." Sybil breathed as Eames helped her to steady herself. The ground stopped shaking and a massive stone maze rose around them.<p>

The White House, at it's center, quickly began to rot. It's white paint decaying and roof caving in. The house's windows burst under the stress of it's rapid metamorphosis. It's wooden floors and siding warped and shrank under the pressure.

"Let's go." Arthur said walking up the the now dilapidated house.

Inside, was a wreck of a home. It's interior no longer spoke of a cozy home for a family. It was now just as weather worn as it's outside. It's furniture tossed and ripped. Exposed. Toys belonging to the little boy were abandoned and left to rot on the floor. The house was a long dead. Not even ghosts were willing to inhabit it.

Their footsteps creaked noisily over the broken floor. They heard crying. Arthur saw her first. Ariadne was crouched on the floor. Huddled, with her arms wrapped around her knees. She has pressed herself in a corner, in a wreck that was once the kitchen.

He wanted to go to her. Wanted to hold her, comfort her. But this mission was to important. He stepped aside as Eames and Isis approached the Architect.

"Hello, My Dear." Isis said kneeling down to the Architect. Ariadne looked up. Her eyes wide, tears down her face. Arthur felt Sybil grab hold of his arm and pulled him back further into the shadows.

"Isis." Ariadne breathed. "You have to help me." The Architect sobbed as the Pleasant Lady held her to her warm motherly body.

"What is it?" Isis asked her.

"I can't find my children." Ariadne cried.  
>"Alexander and Audrey?" Eames asked crouching down next to the Architect.<p>

Ariadne looked confused.

"No... I mean...yes. But... I was with..." She looked around the house with wide eyes. "What happened to Tomas and Ava?" She asked finally. Eames nodded.

"They were never real." Eames said. "You left your real children to be with those projections."

"Don't you remember?" Isis asked. "Now you can't go back."

"No." Ariadne said shaking her head. "No, I would never do that."

"You did." Eames accused gently. "Now your real children and Arthur are alone. There alone because you left them."

"Your wrong!" Ariadne snapped at him. Isis and Eames kept telling that she left the children, Ariadne was crying. Suddenly the ground shook.

Sybil gasped.

"I can't hold it." She breathed out. "I can't hold onto the dream much longer." Arthur noticed it first. Water.

Rushing over the broken floorboards.

Ariadne's projections had found them.

Eames looked into the shadows of the house where Sybil and Arthur were hiding. With a simple signal from the Point Man, the Forger chloroformed the Architect.

"This is happening to fast." Arthur said picking Ariadne off the floor as water rushed in.  
>"Right, but I think it's working." Eames said. "Sybil, get the doors, they'll float, we have to stay above the water." The Control and Forger gathered doors from the rooms. They floated easily on the rising water. Isis lashed them together with torn fabric from the battered white curtains. The ground shook again.<p>

"That wasn't me." Sybil said. Arthur and Eames looked around nervously as they put the Architect on the makeshift raft.

"Cobb." Arthur said.

Back on the first level, Cobb was deep in his own problems. The Water was rising frighteningly fast. The maze he designed was to trap someone in, not allow someone out.

Water... Water was a projection he could not fight. He could not outrun it, shoot it, or stop it.

'Why did Ariadne have to be so damn good?' He wondered as he ran an air mattress under each stretchers. Normally, such a thing was used for patient comfort only but an oxygen tank inflated them enough to make the stretchers all float. Cobb found himself swimming around each of his Teammates, tethering them all together and keeping them afloat.

The Extractor was starting to appreciate how difficult Arthur's job had been on the Fischer inception.

Back on the second level the house shifted off it's foundation and started to move with the flood waters. Sybil screamed as the house groaned and shuttered as it was freed.

Like something Dorothy would have seen on her way to OZ, the view out the windows shifted and changed as the house drifted wildly with the water.

"Climb on you two." Eames shouted at Sybil and Arthur. The Point Man and Control climbed vicariously on the unstable raft as the house shook. Isis fished out the PASIV from the water as she and Eames worked to keep the reaming Team afloat. Arthur and Sybil made quick work of attaching the device to themselves and Ariadne.

"We don't have much time." Isis called as the house collided with one of the walls of the maze.

"Were ready!" Arthur called as he laid down next to his wife.

It was in the Large Country Home Sybil and Arthur found themselves. Sybil quickly forged herself as the little girl in the blue ballet costume. Arthur was looking at her in shock.

"One of Circe's tricks?" He whispered as she took his hand.

"Yes." Sybil/Audrey hissed back. "It's a good one."

"That's Audrey?" He whispered. "Like you saw her?" He asked. Sybil nodded. They watched as Ariadne came rushing into the house.

"Arthur?" She called out. The Architect's eyes caught the two of them then. She rushed into Arthur's arms. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't allow himself to give her comfort. This was to important. Ariadne pulled away from him. She looked for a long time at the child.

"Who?... Are you... Audrey?" She asked. Sybil/Audrey looked up at her and nodded.

"Who are you?" the little girl asked.

Arthur's heart broke at seeing his daughter and his wife. Even if it was really just Sybil in disguise. They looked so much alike. His Daughter's face almost a mirror image of her mothers. To see the look on Ariadne's face, it was almost more then he could bear.

"You... You don't' know who I am?" Ariadne breathed. Her face starting to well up with tears. "I'm your Mommy." The Architect made to hug the little girl but Sybil/Audrey moved away.

"My Mommy is sleeping." The child said. She let go of Arthur's hand and wandered down a dark hall. Ariadne cast as worried look at Arthur before following her.

On the first level, in the dark halls of the hospital, Cobb tried heroically to maneuver the team down flooded halls. He almost laughed when he heard it.

Music.

"Thank God." He said taking the MP3 player out of Eames, pocket and placing the head phones over the forger's ears.

Over the noise of the house creaking and moving with the water Eames and Isis heard it. Lazy drawn out horns. A french singer, her voice very far away.

"Music." Eames said nodding at Isis. "It's almost time."

Ariadne followed the little girl into the downstairs guest room. She opened the door to reveal a clean white hospital room.

"My Mommy is sleeping." Sybil/Audrey said pointing to the figure in bed. Arthur watched, his heart hurting as his wife peered cautiously at the woman in the bed.

The figure there was horrifically thin. Her face waxen and she looked very close to death.

"She chose to leave us." Arthur said. Ariadne looked back up at her husband. "My wife chose to be in the dream."

"No!" Ariadne screamed. She rushed to the Point Man who was finally able to take her in her arms. "Arthur, please!" She cried. "I would never leave you." Sybil had changed back into herself as the sound of the wake up music pulled them out.

They all awoke on the second level as the house was crashing into the walls of the maze. Arthur and Sybil tried to keep from falling off the door raft. The Team suddenly felt it.

The kick.

Cobb had allowed the makeshift stretcher raft to float off a penrose stair well that went to nowhere.

Paradox.


	8. Chapter 8

The Waking World

"_We loved with a love that was more then love."_

_Edgar Allen Poe_

They awoke back in Arthur and Ariadne's bedroom. Yori was attending to the Architect. She applied a light chloroformed rag under Ariadne's nose.

"She was waking up." the Doctor explained as Arthur and the rest of the Team sat up. "It will only last a few more minuets. I didn't want to explain why we were all in her room." Yori said with a shrug.

"Did it work?" Saito asked Sybil. The Control nodded.

"I think so." She said

"We'll know when she wakes up." Isis said rubbing her head. "If she's worried about her children, her _real_ ones, then it may have worked."

"She's not dreaming anymore." Yori said returning to her portable MRI. "Patterns are normal." the Doctor sighed.

"Let's get out of here." Eames said helping Isis to her feet.

The Team quickly left the room, Arthur turned off the lights and climbed back in bed next to his wife. He waited anxiously as the minuets ticked by.

She awoke slowly. Her body moving, her breathing labored.

"Arthur?" she whispered softly. The moonlight flooded their little room. He was able to see her lovely face from it's brightness.

"What is it?" he asked. Pretending to have woken from a deep sleep. Ariadne sat up. She looked around the room. Her face worried.  
>"Where's Audrey?" She asked.<br>"In her room. What's wrong?" Arthur asked trying to sound innocent. His wife left their bed and quickly went across the hall to Audrey's perfectly lavender room.

The Point Man followed the Architect to see her lifting their newborn out of her handsome white crib. Barely waking the infant.

"What's wrong?" He asked again. She rubbed the baby's back. Soothing her.

"I don't know." She admitted. Her face troubled. As if she was trying to remember something. "I... I guess I just had some bad thoughts."

"It's alright." He whispered. A cool wash of relief flowing over him. She wanted to check on Alexander before Arthur was able to convince her to go back to bed.

"I was just so worried about them." She told him as he covered her back up. She folded neatly into his arms. "You to." She admitted.

"Why were you worried about me?" He asked. Hoping, _hoping_ it would take.

"I don't know. I thought... you and the kids... I don't know." She said finally.

"Shh.. it's alright." He told her. He kissed her forehead as she relaxed in his arms.

"Were all safe. Were not going anywhere. Don't think about it anymore." He told her.

She nodded against his chest. She felt his warm breath on her hair. She knew he was breathing in the smell of her shampoo. The smell of her.

She felt so safe with him. She had _always_ felt safe with him. Even before he was her husband, before he was her lover. Ever since she met him in fact. When he taught her the rules of the dreams. He looked after her, protected her.

She had no fear of going into the Fischer inception because she knew he would keep her and the Team safe.

She knew, she belong here. With him and their children. This was their home.

She fell asleep, she dreamed of nothing.

A few weeks past. Yori and Saito went home to Japan. Yori had told the Team in privet that Ariadne's inception had appeared to have worked.

"Arthur," Isis reminded him. "She can _never_ be told what we did." The Point Man looked up.

"We have to lie to her for the rest of her life?" He asked.

"About this, yes." The Pleasant Lady told him sadly. "If she were to know anything about it, her subconscious would try and remember it. It would undo everything we did in the dream. Next time we might not be able to get her back."

Wherever Isis had come from, she never went back there. Although the Architect had no idea who she really was, the Pleasant Lady took wonderful care of the children. The Point Man easily convinced his wife to hire Isis as a live in nanny and cook.

The reality was that Arthur, Cobb and Sybil all felt her talents were valuable to the Team on future extractions. Eames was less convinced.

"I need to clear something up." Eames asked the Pleasant Lady a few days after Ariadne's inception. The two of them were back on the swing set outside the Large Country House.

"Did Circe choose to stay in the dream, or did you and your people take her into the dream and leave her there?" Isis sighed.

"It was _both_. Mr. Eames." She admitted. "We tried to preform inception on Circe. We took her into the dream. Her subconscious was to strong. She... destroyed us. We lost two of our own people trying to get her out." Isis looked lost in memory. "We lost them to Limbo, when they cam out, they were... gone. After that, we had no choice. We had to leave her."

"But you still kept in contact with her." Eames said.  
>"Only because she gained followers. Students. They were parasites. Hecate and Morpheus were just a few. She trained them to do her will. We had not choice but to hide. Her students found us anyway. Circe would have killed us rather than let us go." Isis finished.<p>

"How long was she in the coma?" He asked. For a long time, Isis didn't answer.  
>"My sister was lost in her own dreams for 30 years, Mr. Eames." Isis told him. Tears running down her face.<p>

Fall came with a terrific force across the English countryside. Stiff, cold winds and rain found there way into open doors and windows. The fireplace, in the large parlor was happily lit. Cozy evenings were spent in front of it.

Cerberus was allowed inside the house. The large dog was fierce when it came to strangers and helicopters, but was no match for the cold wet weather. He quickly found a cozy spot in front of the fire and staked it out as his place in the family room.

It was a lazy Monday morning. Phillipa and James were in school. Isis was with the Alexander and the baby. The Pleasant Lady seemed to relish her time with the younger children. As if they nourished her soul just as much as she nourished them.

Eames and Cobb were in Ireland for the week, interviewing and potential chemist.

Sybil was in Town, enjoying her first few weeks of at the University.

Arthur and Ariadne were enjoying a peaceful quite house. It was to cold to go outside. To cold to do anything but stay under the covers. Ariadne was giggling.

"I still can't believe you never saw 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'." She gently scolded him. "What's wrong with you?" Arthur laughed.

"I just never saw it." A rare smile was on his face as he and his wife were totally hidden under their covers. Their faces were pressed close together. "I told you what my father was like." He said softly.

"I'm glad you not like your Dad." She said running a free hand over his bare arm. "I'm glad your so affectionate with the kids."

"Well, it was hard for the old man." Arthur said softly. "My mother had been the love of his life. When she died, lets just say he didn't take it well."

"If something happened to me would you ignore the kids?" She asked.

"No, of course not." He said kissing her forehead. The chase kissing turning into something more as his lips burned down her face and to her lips.

"Your not going anywhere." He said softly. She grinned from under his lips. Their feet intertwining. He broke free from her kiss.

"You sure your healed?" He whispered. His desire for her becoming clear. She nodded and blushed.

"Still a little swollen from the feeding, but... yes." She said feeling mischievous. He gave her a nervous smile before pulling her towards him.

It was a late Friday afternoon. Eames, Ariadne and Sybil were sitting at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. The low light of evening was barely able to cut into the house.

"So, the Chemist didn't work out?" Ariadne asked Eames. The Forger shook his head.

"I guess we don't _have_ to have one." he mused. "But they sure do come in handy."

"Well, I can give it a go." Sybil told him. "Circe taught me all her tricks." She pointed to her head and made a spinning motion with her finger. "Who knows what all is rattling around in there?"

"Whatever Circe taught you could be dangerous." Eames told the Control.

"From what Arthur said, everything Circe did was dangerous." Ariadne added.

"Your just jealous." Sybil teased. "I can forge better then Eames and build better then you now."

Ariadne didn't take the bait.

"Well, at least I'm getting some." She said casually. Sybil looked angry. She was still annoyed at Nolan. Eames choked on his tea at the sudden change of topic.

"Oh big deal with _Arthur_!" Sybil cried out. "I wouldn't go bragging about it."

Eames made no attempt to hide his laughter as The Architect gave him and the control a hard pinch.

Sybil let her eyes rest on Ariadne. She felt it then. Saw it

_It was in this house. _

_Another perfect fall day._

_A little boy, dark hair. _

_In the driveway of the house._

_Arthur was teaching his son to ride a bike. _

"_Don't let go!" Alexander called. _

"_I'm not!" Arthur shouted as he tentatively let go of the two wheeler. _

_The little boy was riding on his own. _

"_Your doing it!" Arthur was shouting. _

_Leaves were falling._

_Bright fall colors. _

"_Your doing it!" Arthur shouted. _

_The little boy rode unsteadily over the driveway. _

"_Look Mommy!" Alexander cried. _

_Ariadne was sitting on the porch. _

_She smiled at them. _

"_I see you!" She called_

"_Your doing wonderful!"_

_Audrey was playing on the porch._

_Beside her mother._

_The little girl was dressed in a colorful tutu. _

_Mixed matched tights. _

_Rhinestone sneakers. _

_Audrey's taste. _

_The little girl looked up. _

_She had been dressing up a large mutt in funny costumes._

_Cerberus._

_Her messy hair tied with with multiple hair ribbons in every color. _

_Ariadne looked down, smiling at her daughter._

Sybil came back then. With a smile. Ariadne would be alright.

Sybil almost didn't hear her cell phone go off over the laughter and teasing of Eames and Ariadne. She jumped when she recognized Nolan's ring tone.

"Percy?" She said happily. "We just talked last night, what's going on?" Ariadne and Eames were fighting and teasing each other on who was the best looking man in the house.

"First me, Darling. Then Cobb, and last is Arthur." The Forger was laughing.

"Sybil." Nolan said gravely. "Were in the air right now. We need your help."

"Whats happened?" Sybil asked. Her tone growing serious.

In response to her change in attitude, Eames and Ariadne stopped their bickering and listened.

"There's been... an occurrence. Our Architect was killed." Nolan said

High in the air, Nolan was talking on the airplane's secure line. It had been a grueling past 12 hours. He looked at his bedraggled Team. He couldn't tell Sybil everything over the phone. It was to dangerous right now.  
>"Just met us at the Cafe you and I first had coffee in, five hours." He finally said before hanging up.<p>

Nolan looked at the young man. A boy really. Valuable property of his own government. Stolen by Nolan and his Team.

**~Thank you all so much for your feedback and reviews. I love it! As you can see, still can't let them be happy. I'm not ready to let them go.**

** I'm going to post a one shot Erotica in a few days. To make up for the fact there was not very much A&A lovin' in this story. I'll pick up this story again soon. I promise. **

** I write this story for all of you and it makes me so happy that you enjoy it. ~**


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